Pod Only Knows
Hosted by Dr. Kelly J. Baker and John Brooks. Kelly and John invite other people from the wide and wild world of religious studies to talk to them about why and how they do what they do and why their work matters to us all. They also talk to each other about the ideas, stories, and histories that fascinate them and that they think you should know about, too.
- Update frequency
- every 11 days
- Average duration
- 65 minutes
- Episodes
- 67
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
#039 – Breath of Fire: Conspirituality, Fraud, and the Prosperity Dharma
Directed by first time documentary directors Haley Pappas and Smiley Stevens, Breath of Fire was released on MAX in October as a four-part documentary series.
Breath of Fire is based on the 2021 Vani…
01:08:23 |
Tue 26 Nov 2024
#038 – Welp...what now? - with Andrew Tobolowsky
We'll just cut to the chase - this week sucked and the next four years are going to be very dark and very difficult.
But we're not here just to rage and doomcast. This Kelly and John were joined by f…
01:10:03 |
Mon 11 Nov 2024
#037 – What really happened at Salem - with Kathleen M. Brown
The Salem Witch Trials may well be the single most notorious and iconic event of America's colonial period. Every Halloween, Salem, Massachusetts, hosts untold thousands of tourists who revel in the …
01:06:12 |
Tue 29 Oct 2024
#036 – HELL HOUSE (2001) - with Jason Bivins
George Ratliff's 2001 documentary Hell House chronicles the development of the 10th annual Hell House Halloween production put on by Trinity Church in Texas.
A Hell House is a variation on the Hallow…
01:12:36 |
Thu 17 Oct 2024
#035 – Sarah Posner - Humor vs. Rage and The Ohio Blood Libel
"They're eating the dogs" is already enshrined as one of the most memorable and iconic (and insane) phrases ever to enter the arena of American politics.
Donald Trump is a ridiculous, unserious, and …
01:05:59 |
Tue 01 Oct 2024
#034 – Thomas Lecaque - Why the right can't stop loving the Crusades (and other losers)
This week, in part inspired by the anniversary of 9/11, Kelly and John invited Thomas Lecaque on the show to talk about the ways the Christian right frame the Crusades and other violent failures to j…
01:07:58 |
Tue 17 Sep 2024
#033 – “Jesus Camp” (2006) with Megan Goodwin
Jesus Camp was 2006's other big documentary, nominated for the Academy Award for documentary feature but losing out to a little film called An Inconvenient Truth.
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel G…
01:16:08 |
Tue 03 Sep 2024
#032 - Stockholm Syndrome: The Story of a Dumb Idea
Stockholm Syndrome is a really good MUSE song. Unfortunately, it's not a good anything else.0
On a recent episode of television's worst show, The Five on Fox News, panelist Jessica Tarlov, herself Je…
00:50:44 |
Tue 13 Aug 2024
#031 - Project 2025 (and why you should really, really care about it)
Project 2025 has (finally) become an enormous national news story.
But while its goals (which go after everything from contraception to the Department of Education) have rightly been in the spotlight…
01:04:11 |
Tue 30 Jul 2024
#030 - "Marjoe" (1972) with Megan Goodwin
The 1972 film Marjoe won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. And then it spent a long time having largely been forgotten until it was restored and rereleased in 2005.
Marjoe is an intimat…
01:00:54 |
Tue 16 Jul 2024
#029 - Thou Shalt Not Violate the 1st Amendment
Well it's been a heck of a week of bad news, and even before the Supreme Court decided the the president was king, Kelly and John decided to look at two news stories likely to play into next year's S…
00:55:04 |
Tue 02 Jul 2024
#028 - Dr. Matthew Taylor on An Appeal to Heaven, Alito, and the NAR
We're back for season two, and we're kicking it off by talking to Dr. Matthew D. Taylor about that weird An Appeal to Heaven flag that got Justice Samuel Alito in so much trouble!
Taylor holds a Ph.D…
01:12:37 |
Tue 18 Jun 2024
#027 - DeSantis v Satan
Last month, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill authorizing Florida school districts and charter schools to adopt a policy for chaplains “to provide support, services, and programs to student…
01:01:33 |
Tue 07 May 2024
#026 - Dr. Richard Newton
Dr. Richard Newton is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Director in the Religious Studies department at the University of Alabama
From the University's website:
Dr. Newton's areas of interest …
01:00:55 |
Tue 23 Apr 2024
#025 - Eclipse Day Special! - featuring journalist Emily McFarlan Miller
It's Eclipse Day, so we're releasing a day early!
The solar eclipse that will be visible for much of the United States today had evoked all kinds of reactions, from overbooked hotels in wholly unprep…
00:56:35 |
Mon 08 Apr 2024
#024 - Simulation Theory, or Young Earth Creationism for Atheists
In 2003, Oxford University philosophy professor Nick Bostrom published a paper titled Are You Living in a Computer Simulation, thus giving rise to the modern incarnation of Simulation Theory, which p…
00:53:15 |
Tue 26 Mar 2024
#023 - Sarah Posner
Sarah Posner has been covering the Christian right and Christian Nationalism for more than a decade. A regular contributor to MSNBC, her works has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, …
00:56:40 |
Tue 12 Mar 2024
#022 - God's Army with Amanda Moore
For the last couple years, Amanda Moore has spent her time covering the far right on her Substack The Turtle Diaries
Amanda infiltrated the far right during the final year of the Trump administration…
01:00:44 |
Tue 27 Feb 2024
#021 - Dr. Nicole Symmonds
This week, Kelly and John talk to Dr. Nicole Symmonds, who works as an Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics and, it happens, used to work a few cubicles down from John at Beliefnet a decade and a …
01:13:38 |
Tue 13 Feb 2024
#020 - Dr. Judith Weisenfeld
As a nice break from all the doom and gloom in the world (and the depressing stuff we often cover), we decided to ask the wonderful Dr. Judith Weisenfeld to come talk to us about her life and work.
J…
01:12:23 |
Tue 30 Jan 2024
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